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Epistemology and Methods Content Analysis and Survey Research May 13 2008. Overview. Content Analysis Survey Research Group Exercise. Content Analysis. Mannheim and Rich 1995, chapter 10
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Epistemology and MethodsContent Analysis and Survey ResearchMay 13 2008
Overview • Content Analysis • Survey Research • Group Exercise
Content Analysis • Mannheim and Rich 1995, chapter 10 • Content Analysis: the systematic counting, assessing, and interpreting of the form and substance of communication • Precondition: physical record of communication • Type of communication: books, magazines, newspapers, documentaries, films, recordings, photographs, meeting minutes, government documents, diplomatic communiqués, cartoons, political advertisement, speeches, letters and diaries, blog,…. • Relatively low cost research method
Mannheim/Rich • Steps in using this method: • Define the population of communications we want to study (this is determined by the research question!) • Once population is defined, one possibility is sampling (still a large n, sufficient level in generalizing from results) • Focus on • Type of communication • Time period of communication • The size of communication (e.g. op-ed articles) • The frequency of communication (e.g. monthly memos) • The distribution of communication (e.g. home delivered newspapers) • The location of communication • The parties to the communication (sender, receiver)
Mannheim/Rich • Define the unit of analysis • Word (e.g. peace in speeches of presidents) • Pitfalls: • Nonstandardized measures can lead to biased results (e.g. word references by 1000 words) • Different meanings of the word (e.g. we seek peace vs. we never allow peace): counting the words in context • We can use judges or coders • Or we move to a second unit of analysis: Theme
Mannheim/Rich • Theme: context+ / complexity+ • Example: Development (trade openness increases economic development; the developmental concerns of LDCs, …this contributes to sustainable development) • Spend time on coding rules…
Mannheim/Rich • Item: the communication itself taken as a whole • Example: e.g. how many times GB senior referred to Saddam Hussein as Hitler-like prior to 1991 Persian Gulf War • Full-text search (e.g. NYT) for words “George Bush”, “Saddam Hussein” and “Hitler” • These words appear within 10 words in either direction
Mannheim/Rich • Create a “dictionary”: define each and every observation we might make and allocate a particular coding • What constitutes a salient reference: e.g. Cuban school books (American, US, Imperialists, Outlaw Regime in Washington, etc…) • Evaluation of salient references (good or bad, pro or anti, ranking, intensity) • E.g. ranking statements to measure “intensity” of newspaper endorsement of candidates (Figure 10.1) • Assistance from a group of judges (about the meaning or intensity of a term) • The role of pre-testing!
Mannheim/Rich • Various procedures: • E.g. define distribution scale (1-x), tell judges to distribute a certain quota for each category (1-x) • The mean is calculated for each statement • E.g. pair-comparison scaling • Pitfalls: number and selection of judges • Pair-comparison for 100 to 200 items!
Mannheim/Rich • Special problems: • Communications are issues for a purpose “All Chinese people believe that the new agricultural policy is a major step….” • If we want to assess the impact of communication, we need to know whom it reaches… • What is the degree of our own access to communication (free choice over material we analyze?) • Is the research sample representative • Intercoder reliability (human judgments): degree of consensus among coders
Laver/Garry • Estimating Policy Positions from Political Texts • The Manifesto Research Group (MRG) / Comparative Manifestos Project (CMP): biggest show on the road (started in the early 1980s) • Party manifestos are strategic documents written by politically sophisticated party elite with many different objectives in mind • Usually issues during elections campaigns, reflect party positions • Provide evidence party position changes over time
Laver/Garry • MRG: measuring relative emphasis of an issue (salience, not party position!), position # emphasis (attention paid to) • MRG categories unipolar (e.g. law and order) • MRG categories bipolar (e.g. social service expansion) • In order to retrieve information on position, additional coding of MRG raw data (e.g. Harmel-Janda Party Change Project (PCP)) • Definition of 19 issues of interests, coding -5 to +5, few experts engage in coding) • Caveat: Prior knowledge (subjective placement of parties)…
Laver/Garry • Estimating policy positions / expert coding: • Data reduction (coding scheme) • in MRG sentence count for 54 coding categories, in PCP transforming text into scores on 19 policy scales • New approach for systematic coding: an example of hierarchical decision-making process (Table 1): • 1 ECONOMY (Role of state in economy) • 11 Economy/+State+ (Increase role) • 111 Economy/+State+/Budget (Budget) • 1111 Economy/+State+/Budget/Spending (Public Spending) • 11111 Health • 11112 Education and Training • 11113 Housing • 11114 Transport • …. • 1112 Economy/+State+/Budget/Taxes (Increase Taxes) • 1113 Economy/+State+/Budget/Deficit (Increase Budget Deficit)
Laver/Garry • Estimating policy positions / computer coding • Quantitative content analysis • Dictionary – mechanical criteria • But need to focus on less ambiguous words or phrases (unipolar) • Example on “taxes”…it’s possible to lower taxes and to raise taxes, but in manifestos in favor of lowering taxes (question is how often is one wrong in order to correct?) • The validity costs are offset by gains in reliability (Computer coding is reliable) and fewer costs • Computer codes without knowledge of context (no pre-information…), computer could potentially more easily detect policy changes… • Laver/Garry on policy positions in UK and Ireland • Cross-validation of techniques (Computer, revised expert, MRG, expert surveys), high correlation on economic policy, less so on social policy (e.g. MRG technique of saliency…)
Content Analysis • Questions?
Survey Research • Mannheim and Rich 1995, chapter 7 • Survey research is a method of data collection in which information is obtained directly from individual persons who are selected so at to provide a basis for making inferences about some larger population • Methods: direct questioning (face-to-face or telephone interviews) or questionnaires… • Types of information: facts, perceptions (what respondents know (or think they know)), opinions, attitudes (more stable preferences), behavioral reports
Survey Research • Stages of Survey Research Preparation • Conceptualization (objective, theory, specific set of questions) • Survey Design (explorative, descriptive, explanatory) • linking objective with data-collecting method; • cross-sectional or longitudinal design (trend and cohort studies, panel studies) • Panel studies – watch out for: costly, keep track of sample, moving towards a biased sample? (respondent changes due to interviews, drop-outs)
Survey Research • Instrumentation (operationalization): define content, form, format, wording and order of questions • Content: Limit the number of questions and time, keep number of hypotheses to be tested small (degree of data!) • Form: Open-ended vs. closed-ended questions (choice of options influences responses) • Format: Techniques how questions are presented (e.g. visual aids…)
Survey Research • Wording and order of questions • compare with prior research • are respondents competent to answer?, use contingency questions to find out (to assess the level of knowledge) • statements are more useful than questions (e.g. to measure intensity of opinion, respondents use the same frame of reference) • but tendency of a response set (tendency to agree with statements), items should be mixed
Survey Research • Generally 4 steps: explanation, warm-up questions, substantive questions, demographic questions • Explanation: should not reveal study information that would bias responses (eliminating fear of study, importance to warrant time and attention) • Warm-up: establish a good relationship with the respondents • Substantive questions: check question ordering, pre-test will give some guidance (experiment with different orderings) • Demographic items: at the end, personal information, prevent respondents’ being ill at ease… • Do not crowd items
Survey Research • Techniques: • Face-to-face surveys:… • Mail surveys: • Telephone surveys: …. • Discussion on pro and cons? • Sampling, Validity and Reliability
Brady: Contributions to Political Science • No other method for understanding politics is used more • Sample surveys analyzed with the help of statistical techniques • New survey methods involve “experiments embedded in surveys”: modify questions wordings to determine whether counter-arguments, subtle cues, rhetorical, emotional or cognitive factors can change opinion or behaviors (how stable are opinions and how do respondents threat information) • Examples: The Use of Competing Frames or Priming • Experiments have made surveys even stronger methods for testing theories, they potentially score high on conceptual richness and policy relevance • Surveys have the great virtues to ask the questions you want to ask, when and where you want!...
Designing an experiment-survey on • Measuring • a) the attitude of citizen vis-à-vis free trade • Questions / Statements • Stability of attitudes (Framing, Priming) • b) the attitude of citizen vis-à-vis international law (e.g. WTO law) • Questions / Statements • Stability of attitudes (Framing, Priming)